ALBANY, N.Y. (NEXSTAR) — New York Attorney General Letitia James and the state’s Democratic congressional delegation are working against a proposal by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to rescind a climate change finding. James, alongside attorneys general from over 20 states, both U.S. Senators from New York, and 18 members of the House of Representatives want to preserve the 2009 “endangerment finding” establishing greenhouse gas emissions as a threat to public health and welfare.
They’re all urging the EPA—led by former New York State Assemblymember and former Congressmember Lee Zeldin—to abandon the proposal and maintain current climate protections. Concerned over the EPA’s proposal to roll back the endangerment finding, the electeds published two separate letters to Zeldin and the EPA, available to read at the bottom of this story.
In a press release, James said, “Climate change is real, it is dangerous, and it is already hurting communities in New York and across the nation.” The EPA said that the regulations in question cost Americans $1 trillion in aggregate costs, plus an additional $54 billion each year.
The endangerment finding established that greenhouse gas emissions threaten public welfare, and served as the basis for many regulations under the Clean Air Act. The letter-writers insist that undermining the legal basis for the EPA’s climate regulations will make the environment less livable for New Yorkers. Under Zeldin, who prizes deregulation, the agency wants to repeal all greenhouse gas emission standards for vehicles and engines.
Claiming that its prior scientific analysis was unreasonable, doubtful, and unreliable, the EPA said that it can’t actually set emission standards over climate concerns under the Clean Air Act. The agency uses several legal arguments, including the “major questions doctrine” saying that major policy decisions must be explicitly authorized by Congress and not left to regulatory agencies. EPA also claims its previous findings on fossil fuels were flawed because they considered a mix of gases, not just carbon dioxide in isolation.
EPA is basing its proposed rollback at least in part on the Climate Working Group report from the U.S. Department of Energy. It suggested that scientific climate models “run hot,” overestimating future warming. It also suggested that there are benefits to increased carbon dioxide in the world, such as promoting plant growth. Per the EPA, current greenhouse gas standards increase prices, limit consumer choice, and keep old vehicles on the road.
Attorney General James—leading prosecutors from Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin, and Washington D.C.—said that repealing the finding would violate established law, Supreme Court precedent, and broad scientific consensus. They contend that the known climate skeptics in DOE climate working group wrote an inaccurate report that didn’t meet scientific integrity standards.
The AG letter pointed to worsening risks of asthma, heart disease, and premature death without climate protections, especially among children, the elderly, and poor communities. James’s office also underscored a previous EPA analysis showing that current vehicle standards could prevent over 8 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide-equivalent emissions in the next 30 years, saving $1.82 trillion that would be spent to repair climate-related damage.
In their letter, the congressional delegation said that climate change is already affecting the state from Montauk to Niagara Falls. They pointed out specific climate-related events that have impacted the state since 2009, including Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee in 2011, Superstorm Sandy in 2012, Hurricane Ida in 2021, and historic snowstorms in Western New York in November and December 2022.
The delegation tallied average temperatures in New York as having risen by nearly 2.6 degrees since 1901 and will increase by as much as 11 degrees by 2100. This warming trend is particularly dangerous in cities. New York City’s urban heat island effect traps and intensifies heat, and days over 95 degrees will be 50 times likelier in Albany, Rochester, Syracuse, and Binghamton by the end of the century, they said.
The lawmakers—Senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, and Reps. Yvette Clarke, Adriano Espaillat, Dan Goldman, Hakeem Jeffries, Timothy Kennedy, George Latimer, John Mannion, Gregory Meeks, Grace Meng, Joseph Morelle, Jerrold Nadler, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Josh Riley, Patrick Ryan, Tom Suozzi, Paul Tonko, Ritchie Torres, and Nydia Velázquez—said that these disasters have already caused billions in damage to infrastructure, private property, and ecosystems statewide. They made the case that, as these events become stronger or more common, New Yorkers with worsening health conditions will be on the hook for recovery costs from heat waves and sea level rise: storms, wildfires, floods, and drought.
The letter also points out that hotter, more humid ecosystems are increasing tick populations, leading to more cases of Lyme disease and higher healthcare costs, especially on Long Island and in the Hudson Valley. The ocean also acidifies by absorbing carbon dioxide as temperatures go up, damaging coral reefs and shellfish, according to the attorneys general.
The state’s agriculture industries like apple orchards and dairy farms are also in the crosshairs of rising temperatures, and winter recreation industries are also threatened by less snowfall, they said. New York has more ski areas than any other state.
Plus, the legislators said repealing the endangerment finding would undo pollution limits on power plants and fuel operations, which are of “particular importance to the public health of New Yorkers.” Gas-fired plants generated 46% of the electricity in the Empire State in 2023.
Here’s the letter from James and the other AGs:
And here’s the letter from New York’s congressional Democrats:
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